The Gujarat High Court issued a notice on Tuesday to the state government and the accused in the Morbi Bridge collapse case, sought their response to a petition from one of the victims.
The petition urged the court to suspend the trial until Ajanta Manufacturing Pvt Ltd was included as an accused and the charge of murder was added.
The application “requires consideration,” according to an oral High Court order that was filed late Tuesday. The court also sent notice to the respondents, including the state government and sought a response by January 6. The plea to stay the Morbi trial in a lower court will be heard by the court on that day.
The petition filed by Narendra Parmar, who lost his daughter Dhwani in the tragedy of October 30, 2022, was being heard by the single-judge bench of Justice Sandeep Bhatt.
Through his lawyer Utkarsh Dave, Parmar petitioned the High Court to overturn the Principal Judge of Morbi’s September 17 ruling, which had denied the appeal for a more thorough probe into the Morbi Bridge tragedy.
According to the petition, the Principal Sessions Judge of Morbi denied the application to add Section 302 IPC and to make Ajanta an accused party.
The prosecution maintained that the victims had “not undertaken any exercise in consultation with the state government for obtaining permission of the court to engage private advocates” and that private advocates “cannot make submissions on behalf of private persons” in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Additionally, Parmar sought interim relief to halt the trial until the outcome of the HC case.
The petition further states that “there is not even an iota of evidence on record, which would show that the accused had intentionally committed the criminal act with knowledge that such an act would, most likely, cause death.”
The trial court rejected the victims’ petition on these grounds.
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